So is Coca-Cola good for music or not?

"The record industry realises that digital downloads are going to be huge but it needs to work with third parties that are whiter than white, and which better brand can you think of than Coca-Cola?"

That unchallenged quote comes from John Hazell in Sean Hargrave's "Brand New Music" article in today's New Media Guardian. The entire thrust of the article is mostly 'gush' at how wonderful it is that a major global brand has got involved in legitimising digital music downloads.

"The Coke launch is being widely seen not only as giving music download credibility but showing that the big brands are set to be major players in the record industry."

Hang on a second though, isn't this the same global brand that under two months ago got the BBC into hot water when it was mooted that Coca-Cola would be getting sponsor messages on Top Of The Pops & Radio One? Wasn't there a problem then with a soft drinks manufacturer linking their unhealthy product intrinsically with music aimed at the youth market? And wasn't the furore led by articles like "BBC heads for Coca-Cola row", "Critics attack Coke chart deal", "BBC row over Coca-Cola charts", and "BBC chiefs knew of Coke chart deal" in, well, you guessed it, the outraged Media sections of The Guardian?

No? Must be my memory playing up again then...